underfloor heating question
- Thread starter skynoch
- Start date
that might work, if your worried about the substrate getting too hot you could put the loops in certain areas of your aquarium and be sure to use extra substrate of decoration to insulate or prevent the rays from staying in the hot spots. i dont see why you couldnt do like what T1KARMANN said and put some loops in the walls, i cant imagine putting more than a few loops in the system anyway maybe just do an outline loop around the edges with a criss cross in the middle like the outline of a window a kid would draw something like this running to your water heater. Im interested to see what underFloorheatingguy has to say
Nic;1607636; said:simple science from elementary school..... Heat rises cool air sinks
thats what i was thinking it may not be the same with 800g of cold water sitting on top of the heat unit
it must heat up the botom of the tank some how thats why this kind of heating works so well on planted tanks but they dont have rays sitting on them 24/7
well actually you guys have it pretty well answered but I'll add to your comments. First off I would like to say that this is actually quite simple but I understand these fish and stingrays are quite expensive and important to you guys. I had a girlfriend who works with these guys at west edmonton mall and lots ended up getting sick and died apparently because some pipe above was dripping into the tank. Getting started you would need to make a concrete pad and I'm guessing probably 4" thick, with 1.5" thick styrofoam underneath and place 1/2" pex plastic tubing about 6"-8" apart. For the heating source I would suggest a combo water tank, this would heat your water for your house and would do the heating in the floor. I use a john wood combo(55% eff. and about $1100) and a polaris combo(93% eff. and about $3000). I use this same system for small houses in the basements but use 12" centers for the tubing. You would also need a pump with controls and timers because its code here because the water in the tubing could get stagnant(about $550). instead of a thermostat you would use an aquastat. I'm not sure about the rays liking the warmer bottom but I do know the concrete is not hot(unless you put a floor sensor), it is just warm and takes the cold off the concrete. it is also very even heat and constant so there is no change in temp. is this a plastic tank or are you making it all concrete? you could put tubing in the walls(I've done it on tanks used for plasma cutters so the tanks wont freeze in the winter but they never had any tubing underneath) but I don't think its necessary. any more questions?
This is a picture of one of my jobs on a subfloor. not the same but shows the tubing. gypcrete was going on top of this, it is like concrete but designed for underfloor heating. the heat transfer is better and is self leveling. talk to your concrete guy but not sure if it will hold the weight of the tank. can you see the pic?
The pond will either be a liner(epdm) or a spray in liner (armagaurd,rhinoliner).
For the heater I was thinking an instant hot water heater with a flow switch in the main water line to turn off floor heat when house hot water called for it and have a boiler loop with a system loop on a heat exchanger and pump (circulating pump also on boiler loop). When aquastat on pond called for heat system loop and boiler loop pump would turn on.
Still not sure I may use electric floor heating so I'll only have to raise my floor level a 1/4"
For the heater I was thinking an instant hot water heater with a flow switch in the main water line to turn off floor heat when house hot water called for it and have a boiler loop with a system loop on a heat exchanger and pump (circulating pump also on boiler loop). When aquastat on pond called for heat system loop and boiler loop pump would turn on.
Still not sure I may use electric floor heating so I'll only have to raise my floor level a 1/4"
To be honest those instant hot water heaters aren't that great, especially in edmonton where the water is so hard. You seem to want to do the complicated and expensive route with the heat exchanger and boiler and system loops(which both need pumps), you would also need a injection pump to connect the two loops. something like this you should probably pour concrete to keep floor even temp and put insulation underneath. I don't mind electric for small jobs like this but it's your decision, I obviously prefer hydronic heating.
with that heat exchanger now you would need an expansion tank, pressure relief valve, air removal and a system feed device with a check valve
Do the instant hot water heaters have a smaller heat exchanger in them than combi units? With a combi unit I would still have to have a system and boiler loop also wouldn't I? I shouldn't need an injection loop with a heat exchaner unless I need to drop my system loop temp from my boiler loop temp. I may need to. It may cheaper just to have a seperate boiler for the floor heating if I wouldn't need a learge boiler.
